As a staff, we are reading Organic Outreach by Kevin G.Harney (2009). As we read each week, I want to discuss my thoughts and feelings as we read this book. If we want to reach families, we need to learn how to reach them.
Harney (2009) says, “Organic outreach is about living the kind of life that naturally draws people to Jesus” (p. 16). How are we living our lives? Are we naturally drawing others to Jesus? Harney (2009) later says, “The truth is almost any approach to evangelism, if it is rooted in Scripture, done in love, and propelled by the leading of the Holy Spirit, will be fruitful” (p. 17).
The first place to start is with preparing the soil of our hearts. To do outreach well, we need to prepare the soil of our hearts. Harney (2009, p. 20) says:
As we walk through this world, some will reach out and grab our hand, while others will need us to reach out to them. In the name of Jesus, we can prepare the soil of our hearts to engage in the most glorious enterprise in all of life: reaching out with God’s love and grace.
There’s no telling when we might be engaging with someone and can lead them to Christ. It can be someone we meet on the street who will reach out and grab our hand. Yet, it can be others that we know are hurting that will need us to reach out to them. We have to ask God to prepare the soil of our hearts so that we truly can reach out with God’s love and grace.
I urge you, friends, to ask Jesus to prepare the soil of your hearts. You need to be intentional with this. You need to let even the most ordinary moments be ones where you can reach someone with God’s love and grace.
Feature photo credit: By Dorothea Lange – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17247529
Thriving in God's Grace 